How to avoid data recovery

This may be an odd item to write about in a data recovery blog, but actually the best kind of data recovery is not to require it. The critical word is 'Backup'. However, I get many customers who say that they were about to do a backup, or where going to do a backup when they had finished their project, university work etc, and then all of a sudden everything is lost.

For a safe backup there are a few critical points

• Must be done automatically, or on a regular basis
• A backup must be stored on another piece of media
• A backup must be stored in a different location
• A backup must be tested with the occasional restore

For many users and small businesses a very easy type of backup is an online system that automatically backs files up when they are added to the system, or edited. There are many available, but the one I use is Carbonite as it is automatic, and has unlimited capacity. It ticks all four boxes above.

The different media is essential as if just a different partition is used, this could fail at the same time as the key data partition.

The different location will cover events such as fire and theft. For non sensitive data, then placing a backup drive in the office or home is a good start, or with friends are neighbours.

Another point on backup is the ability to recreate a complete system disk from scratch in the event of a complete failure. For this one requires disk image of the system disk and Acronis is a popular solution, but not one I have tried.

Always think that if any thing is not backed up, it could be lost - so BACKUP now.